Recent Adventures

Wow what a whirlwind. Have I been busy. Long time in coming.


First, my birthday...wonderful day. My daughter surprised me by taking me out to dinner and had my friends meet us there. It was a wonderful surprise and time well spent. The "ladies" gave me cobalt blue glasses and this really neat cup with a strainer and a lid for my tea. (Which I have used every day since I received it.) My friend Karen, who sent the lavender roses in the pic below, gave me the cutest stuffed pug. Since my husband was out to sea, it was so wonderful that my daughter took such time and effort to set that up for me. It really made me feel special. It meant a great deal to me.


Since the 19th...what a whirlwind of activity. I finally got my sewing room cleaned and organized!! Yeah me. I am really pleased with everything having a place and being able to find everything more quickly. I will post more on mission organization later.


In the mean time, I have been busy with machine embroidery and quilting as well.


I completed the quilt I was making for my beautiful new niece Jayna. I am pretty happy with it. I found the pattern in the March 2009 Issue of "The Quilter Magazine". The pattern is called "Bear Hugs" by Heidi Pridemore and can be found on page 40. Like most quilt patterns, it is fun to change it up and make it your own. Let you creative license take charge. While I did use quilt quality 100% cottons; I also used minkee and flannel. The end result as you can see below gave the quilt wonderful textures. I'm hoping little Jayna will enjoy her new quilt.


Applique and Minkee, those are two words I had never put together before. I was happy with the end result don't get me wrong. But, it was a long road to getting it done. Applique over the edge of Minkee can be a bit tricky. I was afraid it would pucker or catch. I ended up using a walking foot with Teflon ends while doing a double blanket stitch on the edges of the bear and his blanket. I wanted to make certain it held well. I also used Minkee on the back of the quilt. It is so soft and you can just imagine a child cuddled up in it. It's just wonderful material.



The quilt is quite heavy, but as Jayna is a South Dakota farm girl :), I am hoping it will keep her warm in their long cold winters.


Machine Applique

I attended my monthly machine applique retreat in a nearby town (Visalia). I have such fun with those ladies. (And Phil) I worked on a window pane blouse. I was able to complete five squares by the end of class which runs from 9 to 6 with two breaks for brunch and late lunch. I am pretty happy with the results. I did a couple more squares today and I'm happy with the way they stitched out. I used stabil-stick tear away as a stabilizer. I decided I'm just going to go crazy with it and stitch something out in every single square. I went with a flower/garden theme. I don 't care how busy the end result will be. I'm just going to have fun with it :)




Let me know what you think. I'll post a pic when I get it completed.

I'm off to the Fresno Mall and then the Fish Market with "the ladies Kristin and Laysee" tomorrow.

Cya,
Delicia